It’s old money to blame for fantasy land fees, not City
JURGEn Klopp was talking about this summer’s transfer market. ‘We invested money in this team, now it looks like we are not,’ he said. ‘ But we are not in fantasy land where you just get whatever you want. It looks as if there are four clubs in the world who can do it constantly...’
He placed one English name in that list. Manchester City, naturally.
Whenever there is talk of transfer inflation, City get the blame. They have broken their transfer record again this summer, for Rodrigo: £62.8m. And that isn’t small. But it’s still £12.2m less than Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk 18 months ago, still £26.2m under Paul Pogba to Manchester United in 2016 and £8.2m beneath what Chelsea gave for a goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, last summer.
If Arsenal complete the signing of nicolas Pepe from Lille this week, City will be roughly £10m shy of that, too. Indeed, as it stands, City haven’t delivered a deal in the top five in England or the top 20 in Europe.
So is this the club whose transfers place them in fantasy land, or the one responsible for escalation in the market? It isn’t new money that began this trend, as any contextualised financial evaluation indicates.
It didn’t get much publicity at the time but this summer a group that analyses the economics of football — Play Ratings — produced a list of the most expensive transfers in history, taking into account relative inflation. In pure numbers, Luis Figo moved from Barcelona to Real Madrid for £20m less than Manchester City paid for Aymeric Laporte. Yet what does Figo’s £37m in 2000 represent in modern terms? Play Ratings worked that out. And guess what? It turns out old money was inflating the market before new money had its nappy on. Indeed, neymar’s £198m move to Paris Saint-Germain only just scrapes into Play Ratings’ top five. The most inflationary transfers, it concludes, were conducted by those clubs that now moan loudest and demand greatest protection from new wealth. In a nutshell? Serie A. Using a formula involving currency variables and comparative markets through time, according to Play Ratings, the period when Italian clubs were Europe’s biggest spenders saw the greatest extravagance in transfer investment — and one of the most inflationary deals involved the king of Financial Fair Play himself, Michel Platini. Using the Play Ratings algorithm, the biggest transfer in history was Ronaldo’s from Barcelona to Inter Milan in 1997, worth the modern equivalent of £388m; after that, Platini from Saint-Etienne to Juventus in 1982, calculated at £299m. And on the list goes: Diego Maradona, Barcelona to napoli; Christian Vieri, Lazio to Inter Milan; Marco van Basten, Ajax to AC Milan; Gabriel Batistuta, Fiorentina to Roma. And we can all argue about the formula, but not the basic principle. The idea that football’s market was tranquil or even deflated before clubs such as Manchester City and Paris Saint- Germain came along is a myth.
There were always a handful of clubs pushing prices skywards, whether from Serie A or the big two in La Liga or Manchester United and, later, Chelsea.
Klopp placed Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG in the same bracket as City as clubs that can do what they want, when they want — which is ironic as two of that number have recently operated with a transfer ban, and another two might soon be in a similar position.
Yet if Liverpool have not been spending big this summer it is more due to circumstance than being anybody’s poor relations. In 2018, they made Van Dijk the world’s most expensive defender and later did the same for Alisson, briefly, as a goalkeeper. Liverpool’s fee for Alisson is still only £6.5m short of City’s for Rodrigo.
AnD they have an excellent squad now, without the need for significant upgrades. The last weak link could have been the second centre-half but Joel Matip has grown into a fine foil for Van Dijk. Look at the first reserves across many positions, too, players like Joe Gomez and Divock Origi. Liverpool have strength in depth now.
Do they miss a playmaker like Philippe Coutinho? Yes, occasionally. Did they win the Champions League without one, however? Yes to that, too. And while every coach can think of a hole that needs filling, or a tweak that could offer handy variation, if Liverpool have had a difficult pre-season it is not because the squad is lacking.
nor is it because Manchester City have priced them out of the market. Rodrigo may look big news on City’s balance sheet, but the clubs who sit in judgement have been there, done that and spent it much bigger, long ago.